TVRI (also referred to as TVRI Nasional, TVRI Siaran Nasional, or Kanal 1 TVRI Nasional), formerly known as TVRI Jakarta Central Station (Indonesian: TVRI Stasiun Pusat Jakarta) is the main national publictelevision channel owned by LPP Televisi Republik Indonesia (TVRI). The channel began broadcasting on 24 August 1962, making it the first television station in Indonesia. The channel was also the only television channel in Indonesia until 1989, when Programa Dua TVRI (now TVRI Jakarta) in Jakarta broadcast separately from TVRI and private television stations began broadcasting.
As a preparation towards the fourth Asian Games in 1962, the Indonesian government intends to establish a television station in Indonesia. On July 25, 1961, the Indonesian Minister of Information issued Ministerial Decree No. 20/SK/M/1961 regarding the formation of the Television Preparation Committee (P2T).
TVRI began its trial broadcast with the 17th Indonesian Independence Day ceremony on 17 August 1962. The event was broadcast from the courtyard of the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, in black-and-white format and supported by a 100W backup transmitter. On 24 August, TVRI officially aired for the first time with a live broadcast of the 1962 Asian Games opening ceremony from Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium.
After the concluding of the games, TVRI was closed for some time until it aired again on 11 October 1962. TVRI began broadcasting advertisements on television starting 1 March 1963.[1]
In 1965 TVRI Yogyakarta was inaugurated in Yogyakarta, signalling the establishment of regional TVRI stations in following years which gradually expanded the reach of TVRI central broadcast. With the launch of Palapa satellite in 1976, TVRI could easily reach all parts of Indonesia. This is reinforced by the "mobile production station" (Stasiun Produksi Keliling) which was formed gradually starting in 1977 in several provincial capitals.
In the 1960s, TVRI only broadcast at the evening. Until 1969, TVRI only broadcast 4.5 hours on Sunday nights.[2] However, in the following decades, TVRI added broadcast hours to the afternoon. The morning and afternoon broadcast is then presented only on Sundays, as well as on national holidays and state events.
On 1 January 1983, TVRI launched Programa Dua TVRI (now TVRI Jakarta) TVRI officially launched TVRI Programa 2 in Jakarta, which was originally a channel that only broadcast news programs in English.[3] Starting in 1989, Programa 2 programs began to be developed to be more suitable for the Jakarta public, thus starting to undermine TVRI's central broadcast monopoly on television broadcasts.[4] which began to overturn TVRI monopoly on television broadcasts, followed by launch of private television network RCTI about four months later. On 23 January 1991, another private television network TPI (now MNCTV) began broadcasting nationally, initially by utilizing TVRI airtime which does not broadcast in the morning and afternoon. Since then TVRI is no longer dominates television broadcasts in other places in Indonesia. Moreover, the Minister of Information's decree allowed private television stations (which previously had their broadcast coverage limited to the city where the station was broadcasting) to broadcast nationally.
TVRI did not have the financial means to secure the rights to air the 1990 FIFA World Cup live. RCTI subsequently gained the rights, at a higher price. Such live telecasts would have affected its infrastructure.[5]
Starting from 16 November 1998, TVRI introduced the weekday morning broadcast from 05.30 WIB to 09.30 WIB; previously TVRI aired the morning broadcast only on Sunday, national holidays and state events. This airtime addition would continue until 12 July 2001, where TVRI began its full daytime broadcasts while continuing to close at night.
As the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia urging the government to appeal Indonesians to "work, study, and pray at home", the Ministry of Education and Culture renewed again its partnership with TVRI, this time to broadcast educational programming on a dedicated block on the TVRI network starting 13 April 2020 to 30 March 2021. Titled Belajar dari Rumah, the block consists of kids program Jalan Sesama for young children, instructional programming for elementary and high school students, and a parenting program on weekdays; as well as national movies at several weeknights and children, talkshow, and documentary programs at weekends.
Until early 2021, TVRI broadcasts roughly 20–21 hours a day from 4am to midnight WIB on the next day and 21.5 hours[citation needed] during the month of Ramadan, making TVRI one of the few national television networks that does not broadcast 24 hours a day. Starting mid-April 2021 (coinciding with the beginning of Ramadan), TVRI start broadcasting throughout the day for 24 hours,[6] later by the end of the same month, TVRI now broadcasts in 16:9 (previously in 4:3).
TVRI has had 361 transmission stations (of which 129 are digital transmission stations), which are claimed to be able to reach up to 78.2% of Indonesian audiences. This makes TVRI a channel with the widest reach of any other television network in Indonesia. These transmission stations are managed by 34 regional TVRI stations throughout the country.[7]
Programming
TVRI broadcasts a variety of programming, ranging from news, information, entertainment, sports, to children programming for 24 hours a day.
Its current flagship news program is Klik Indonesia, aired four times a day in the morning, noon, afternoon, and the evening. Klik Indonesia is a continuation of TVRI's main news program that started in the 1960s, thus inherit the oldest news program in Indonesia. Other news programs include the world news program Dunia Dalam Berita, broadcast almost continuously since 1978, and English-language English News Service until 2021 was moved to TVRI World as Focus Today (stylized in all caps or title opening as FOCUS TODAY) since 2021 and broadcast live since 2022.
Past programs include the Indonesian legendary children programming Si Unyil, and Berpacu dalam Melodi game show (from 1988 until 1998) and Live telecast of the Premier League] since August 2019 until its programming has terminated in 2020 due to rights fee problem with id:Mola TV (former PL rights between 2019-20 and 2021-22 before Emtek will handover it since 2022-23.[8]
